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A spontaneous outpouring of support for the Muslim community was the response to a small short-lived anti-Islam protest outside a downtown Toronto mosque on Friday.

Photos online showed a small crowd with signs stating “No Islam.”

After seeing pictures of the protest online, approximately 20 to 30 people showed up outside of Masjid Toronto, a mosque in the heart of downtown Toronto, armed with last-minute signs. But before any of them arrived, the protest had already dispersed.

A Facebook event for the initial protest said that attendees would go to the court hearing of Eric Brazau, a Toronto man who was convicted of willfully promoting hatred against Muslims and criminally harassing a Muslim man and was “detained briefly last week for countering an anti-Trump protest.” The event said attendees would then march from the courthouse to a mosque with “anti-Islam signs.”

The group was also protesting Motion M-103, which made news this week as it was debated in the House of Commons, claiming it would violate freedom of speech rights. The motion’s goal is to study how the government can tackle systematic racism and religious discrimination including Islamophobia.

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“There’s always going to be the sort of people who are pressing buttons of division everywhere and my understanding of the protest is it was a handful of people, not thousands. So for us to expect that such people are not around and such people don’t exist is unrealistic,” said Abdul-Basit Khan, who attends the Masjid Toronto mosque and is a former member of the mosques executive committee.

Khan said the mosque has not seen a similar protest in its 15-year history.

“The first protest was probably planned and organized. You don’t have people naturally coming to a mosque and saying bad things about its attendees and their faith. But the counter-protest, it was spontaneous. That’s more telling,” Khan said.

Katie Berger, Lane Patriquin, and Michelle Robidoux all rushed to the mosque in Toronto to show their support for the Muslim community after seeing pictures of the anti-Islam protest online. (Ellen Brait/ Toronto Star)

Khan also said be believes there’s “no better place to be a Canadian Muslim than in the GTA.”

“The GTA is so diverse,” Khan said. “It is so full of decency.”

The reaction of Torontonians to the initial protest just further proved that to him.

Katie Berger had just finished up a dance class when she saw at photo of the protest on Facebook. She immediately messaged some friends to meet her there and headed over to the mosque.

“It’s horrifying,” she said. “It’s completely unacceptable for people or groups to be targeted this way.”

She arrived to signs taped to the building’s walls: “We stand with our Muslim brothers and sisters,” “We welcome our fellow Canadians of all religions,” and “Whoever you are our heart is the same our blood is the same all over the world.”

“This is not an isolated incident,” Berger said of the protest. “They’ve always happened. They didn’t just start happening but they’re happening more and more. People are less ashamed about it but it’s up to us to respond as soon as we can.”

Michelle Robidoux, who also showed up outside the mosque after seeing a picture of the initial protest online, said it was “stressful” seeing the picture, especially so soon after six Muslims were murdered in a Quebec City mosque on Jan. 29.

Leya Jasat and Adila Mulla attend school in the area and saw the counter-protest. Seeing the response of Torontonians was "heartwarming, to say the least," Mulla said. (Ellen Brait/ Toronto Star)

Lane Patriquin, who was one of the first to arrive at the counter-protest, said it’s more important than ever for marginalized groups to “stand together.”

“I feel like solidarity among marginalized people now is particularly important because I worry the right wing is using a divide and conquer tactic with marginalized groups,” Patriquin said.

Kat Stoughton and her children Mia and Lily made hurried signs before attending the counter-protest.

“My best friend is Muslim,” Mia’s sign read.

“Everyone is Welcome!” read Lily’s.

Stoughton said they weren’t sure if others would come out but they wanted to “stand up for justice.”

“We wanted to make sure there was the alternate voice here,” Stoughton said. “[The protestors] don’t speak for most Canadians. They don’t speak for me.”

Adila Mulla, 23, and Leya Jasat, 19, who attend school in the area and are both Muslim, said they happened to be walking by when they saw the gathering. They stopped to thank some of the counter-protestors. Mulla even stared tearing up.

“It’s nice to see someone supporting us especially with what’s going on in the world,” Jasat said. “I’ve felt less safe after all the hate crimes but it’s good to see there’s someone out there to help out.”

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